November Trail of Tears Association chapter meeting in LaFayette

Published 12:56 pm Thursday, October 29, 2009

The next meeting of the Georgia Chapter of the Trail of Tears Association will be held on Saturday, November 14, 2009, at 10:30 a.m. at the Marsh House in LaFayette. The speaker will be Jeff Bishop, President of the GA Chapter.

Fort Cumming, one of Georgia’s Cherokee removal stockades, was located in what is now LaFayette. Jeff will share some of the history of this site and bring us up to date on current research being done. Our goal is to get this fort site certified on the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail. We also want to interpret the site so that citizens and visitors will know the story of Cherokee removal. The business meeting will follow Jeff’s talk and we will announce the results of the election of officers for 2010.

The Marsh House was built in 1836 by Spencer and Ruth Marsh and was constructed with slave labor. To the Cherokees, Spencer Marsh was a friend and was known as Estachee. Ninatoya, a Cherokee woman, was also a servant in the Marsh home. She was forcibly removed in 1838 in spite of Marsh’s attempts to keep her in Georgia. During the Civil War, the family moved south to escape the fighting in the area. They returned after the war to find blood-soaked floors, hoof prints in the floors and bullet holes in the walls and windows. The house remained in the same family for 150 years. The house is now owned by Walker County and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

There is no charge to attend the meeting and tour the house. The Marsh House is at 308 N. Main St. in LaFayette. From the Rome area, take Hwy. 27 North and then take Business 27 into downtown LaFayette. Bus. 27 becomes North Main Street. Stay on North Main through two traffic lights at Villanow St. and Culberson St. Turn right onto Wardlaw St. (second right after Culberson). Go one block to the stop sign and turn left onto Duke St. The entrance to the Marsh House is the second drive on the left. There is a red brick column there.

The Trail of Tears Association was created to support the Trail of Tears National Historic Trail established by an act of Congress in 1987. The TOTA is dedicated to identifying and preserving sites associated with the removal of Native Americans from the Southeast. The Association consists of nine state chapters representing the nine states that the Cherokee and other tribes traveled through on their way to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).

Our meetings are free and open to the public. You need not have Native American ancestry to attend our meetings, just an interest and desire to learn more about this fascinating and tragic period in our country’s history.

For more information about the TOTA, visit the National TOTA Web site at www.nationaltota.org and the Georgia Chapter Web site at www.gatrailoftears.org. For further information about the November meeting, contact Leslie Thomas at (706) 635-3864 or aeriehollow@ellijay.com.